The present invention relates to stereo capturing, and more particularly, to a method for performing multi-camera capturing control of an electronic device, and an associated apparatus.
A conventional portable electronic device such as a conventional multifunctional mobile phone can be designed to perform stereo capturing, and therefore can be referred to as a stereo camera phone or a three dimensional (3D) camera phone. More particularly, the conventional portable electronic device may capture two images (or two video clips) to simulate the stereo vision through the two eyes of somebody (e.g. the user of the conventional portable electronic device), and then perform some operations of a conventional stereo processing method, such as image refocusing operations, according to the two images (or the two video clips). However, some problems such as side effects may occur. For example, a conventional application (or a conventional design) regarding the conventional stereo processing may require a working distance between a captured object and the conventional portable electronic device to fall within a specific range, but does not have the capability to determine when this specific range is satisfied, where the specific range may be between sixty centimeters (cm) and two meters (m). If the working distance falls outside the specific range, the correctness of the processing results of the conventional stereo processing cannot be guaranteed.
In order to solve the problems of the working distance, a conventional method is proposed in the related art. According to this conventional method, a message (e.g. the text string “Please put the captured object between 60 cm and 2 m”) may be displayed first before the user starts using the conventional application. For example, when the conventional portable electronic device runs the conventional application and displays this message, it is “ready” for the user to use it, and then the user may use the conventional portable electronic device to capture images (or video clips). Afterward, the conventional portable electronic device running the conventional application typically starts the conventional stereo processing according to what is just captured, no matter whether the working distance falls within the specific range for the conventional application. As a result, the processing results of the conventional stereo processing may be incorrect. Thus, a novel method is required for improving the basic design architecture and enhancing the user experience.